Agriculture

Accurate estimation of water and soil losses from agro-ecologically diverse areas is extremely important for designing appropriate resource management or soil/ water conservation measures. The developed KW-GIUH-MUSLE(Kinematic wave-Geomorphlogical Instantaneous Unit Hydrograph-Modified universal Soil loss equation) model is tested for its sediment yield estimation potential on three agro-ecologically diverse micro-watersheds in Almora district of Uttranchal. It is observed that estimates are associated with about 49% mean relative errors and mean DV value of about 0.51 in Salla Rautella and Naula micro-watersheds. This showed that point predictions of annual sediment yields are of moderate quality. However, root mean square error estimates and comparison of mean and standard deviation values for the observed and simulated sediment yields showed that long term sediment yields could be estimated quite realistically. This is also observed in Deolikhan micro-watershed that storm wise sediment yield estimates are associated with about 6% mean relative error and 0.94 mean DV value. The analysis thus clearly showed that the developed KW-GIUH-MUSLE model could indeed be utilized for obtaining reasonable sediment yield estimates for un-gauged/ inadequately gauged micro-watersheds.

The study was carried out to evaluate various selected crops which were used as intercrops to control fruit drop in hot pepper (Capsicum frutescens). A Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) was used. There were six treatments and four replications. The treatments were control (pepper), Pepper-tomato, Pepper-mint, Pepper-citronella, Pepper-onion and Pepper-garden eggs intercrops. It was observed that there were significant differences between the mean total number and weight of harvested marketable pepper fruits but the other means were not significantly different for the other parameters that were observed. Pepper-citronella recorded the highest number of harvested pepper fruits. Pepper-tomato intercrop recorded the least number of harvested pepper fruits. Percentage fruit drop in the pepper fruit was high in all treatments.

After cereals, oil seeds are the second source of food, and canola is the third source of oil seeds crop in the world after palm oil and soybean. This study was performed as factorial in RCBD design, First factor included cultivars (Zarfam, Talaye, Okapy) and second factor included drought stress (control, 60% FC, 40%Fc), also some properties were studied such as Superoxide dismutase, Proxidase, Catalase, yield. Totally, results showed that antioxidant enzymes increase as one mechanism in responses to stress and cultivars had different amount of enzyme unit. Between cultivars Zarfam and Talaye had highest antioxidant enzyme, respectively, highest means of SOD (31.6), POD (46) and CAT (23 Enzyme activity unit per mg protein) were obtained by Zarfam cultivar in 40% FC condition. Enzyme unit increased by increasing of drought levels and Zarfam, Talaye and Okapy showed 219, 198 and 112 gr/m2 yield in 40% FC condition.

The occurrence of Diaretiellarapaeparasitizing Lipaphiserysimiin Brassica alba,Brassica campestris cv. BSH-1, Brassica carrinata,Brassica nigra,Erucasativa cv. T-27, BrassicajunceaL. cv. Varuna,YST-151 and GSC-6 were evaluated.The correlation coefficients between aphid population and D. rapaeand its hosts on different Brassica species with different abiotic factors revealed contradictory results.Except for a few instances the weather parameters showed low order of associations with L. erysimiand its parasitism byDiaeretiellarapae. Thus, the ecologicalfactors exhibited little impact on the population build- up of mustard aphidand its parasitism byDiaeretiellarapaeon different species of Brassica.Brassicanigraharboured relatively higher populations of the aphid While,B. carrinataand Taramina,T-27 have lower aphid population.

Electrical properties of sugarcane stalks were studied in order to develop a rapid and non-destructive assessment technique and to determine the mass of sugarcane stalks. A 5 V sine wave AC power supply and a rectangular parallel plate capacitor sample were used to span the difference in capacitance caused by the insertion of sugarcane stalks between the plates. To remove the effect of air gap between the plates, an equivalent capacitor was derived. The correlation between mass of sugarcane stalks and output voltage from the device for each sample was investigated. Experiments indicated a high correlation between mass and output voltage for each sample of sugarcane stalks and a quadratic trend line was best fitted to the data. The coef?cient of determination (R2) between actual mass and presented voltage was 0.955. For testing results, the coef?cient of determination (R2) of mass prediction was obtained as 0.969. This method can con?dently predict the mass of sugarcane stalks and it can be used in different machines and agricultural mechanism.

Diverse soil management practices exist even within a narrow transect of farming areas in Nepal. This variation is principally due to location of farm households along the spatial gradient, infrastructure availability, market demands and farmers’ awareness to on-farm resource conservation. Over-exploitation of farm resources was negligible and disturbance to agro-ecology was minimal in the past couple of decades. In the last decade, however, due to a massive sprawl in the available farmlands along with a shift of subsistence farming towards market-oriented conventional approach, prime agricultural lands have been over-exploited. This led to negative repercussion on production base and farmers’ livelihoods. This paper concerns with the simulation of farm income through spatial modeling considering the strategy of sustainable soil management practices. Spatial modeling shows higher farm income gains due to intervention in rural areas (low income zone) and peri-urban areas (high income zone) with existing unsustainable soil management practices. Spatial explicit assessment shows that integration of micro-survey into spatial environment and subsequently modeling of present and future situation would add more information on the results from conventional surveys. Therefore spatial effects should be duly considered while formulating agriculture and rural development policies.

Agriculture and technological gadgets rule the world. No agriculture, no food. No technological gadgets, no civilisation. Agriculture as the ancient of civilisation is on threshold competition with high-tech gadgets. Everywhere, Money! Money! Money, but none for 99% of world population of over 6 billion. Only 1% of world population control world wealth of over US$251 trillion. Of this wealth high-tech gadgets account for over 90%. Agricultural products remain the least priced, but remains the most essential. Yet, high tech gadgets take the whole earnings from agriculture and add to their own empire. In view of the fact that high tech money monguls, must also feed and be happy with agriculture, and not from gadgets; they need to invest in agriculture and feed a hungry world with just 1% of their fortune. Nevertheless, agriculture and high tech gadgets must live and let live for a better world.

Beekeeping is a very longstanding practice in the farming communities of the Tigray region and it plays a significant role as a source of additional cash income which is also an integral part in the smallholder farming system of the region. The overall objective of the study was to analyze honey marketing opportunities and challenges in the study area. A total of 135 beekeepers were proportionately and randomly selected from each study districts. The data was analyzed using descriptive statistics using SPSS ver.16. According to the data analysis, the mean price of honey is birr 63.45 (September to November), 61.77 (December to February), 62.20 (March to May) and 59.69 (June to August) and most of the respondents (62.5%) sold their honey at district market while the rest sold at farm gate, kebelle market, other kebelles’/districts’ market and regional market. The honey marketing system of the study area has been reported to have faced with some challenging factors such as poor extension services related to honey marketing (96.6%), absence of local cooperatives that can activity participate in the honey marketing (89.8%), and limitation in participation of wholesalers and processors in the marketing system of honey are the main among the others. Despite these limitations, there are many opportunities for honey marketing in the study area; stable honey price, accesses to market information, access to nearby market and accesses to credit in relation to honey marketing, existence of good market infrastructure particularly, road and mobile networks, and presence of credit institutes such as Dedebit Credit and Saving Institution (DCSI) in the research location.

This study examines the medicinal uses and marketing of desert date in Kaduna North Local Government Area of Kaduna State. A total of one hundred marketers were randomly selected among the traders in the markets located in the study area. Information on the traditional uses of the plant was equally gathered from the respondents using a well structured questionnaire with personal interview. Eighty-eight (88%) of the total questionnaires were successfully utilized for the analysis. Economic tools such as Gross Margin (GM) and Marketing Efficiency (ME) were used to determine the profitability of Balanite aegyptiaca (desert date) marketing while the socio-economic characteristics of the traders and uses of the plant were analysed using simple descriptive statistics such as frequency and percentage. The business is male-dominant and the uses of the plant are basically for medicinal purposes in the treatment of ailment such as schistosomiasis, dizziness/body weakness, stomach upset/pain, ulcer, and as food. Plant parts used include the leaf, root, seed and fruit. Gross Marketing Margin was calculated to be N140, 856.40, Net Marketing Margin was N137, 256.94 while the Marketing Efficiency (ME) was calculated to be 39.13%.

This study was performed to evaluation of salicylic acid and Paclobutrazol application on the growth characteristics of annual sports grass. The experiment was carried out as factorial in a completely randomized design that the first factor was salicylic acid levels (0, 100 and 200 ppm) and the second factor included paclobutrazol at four levels (0, 5, 15 and 30 mg per liter) with 3 replications. At the end of experiment some properties were determined such as RWC, Shoot fresh weight, Shoot dry weight, Root length, Membrane stability index. Totally, Means of all traits increased with increasing levels of salicylic acid from 100 to 200 ppm and highest means of RWC (92%), shoot fresh weight (9.7 grams per 5 cm), shoot dry weight (1.27 grams per 5 cm), root length (24.5 mm) and membrane stability index (84%) were obtained by treatment of 200 ppm. Also, paclobutrazol led to increasing of RWC but it led to reduction in other traits. Therefore, according to obtained results, application of 200 ppm salicylic acid and 30 ppm paclobutrazol recommended for sports grass planting